Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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North Berry Concrete Corporation
Rebar impalement citation reinstated
North Berry employees passed within one or two feet of a floor opening while traveling to work areas in a 68-story building. Unprotected reinforcing bars rose from the floor below, creating an impalement hazard if an employee fell through the opening. The judge vacated the item because the…
Midwest Steel Erection, Inc.
Steel-erection settlement approved with remaining rulings final
Three OSHA inspections of Midwest's structural-steel work produced serious, willful, repeat, and other-than-serious citations with $23,200 proposed. The judge affirmed several fall-protection and ladder items, reduced one willful item to serious, affirmed the repeat and other-than-serious…
Berglund-Cherne General Contractors
Rebar impalement citation vacated
Berglund-Cherne employees laid masonry blocks near reinforcing steel that protruded 18 to 24 inches from the same floor level. OSHA cited the company under a standard barring employees from working above unprotected vertical rebar because of impalement hazards. The Secretary argued that workers…
Gelco Builders, Inc.
Rebar-impalement violation and $75 penalty affirmed
Gelco employees used a 40-foot ladder positioned over protruding reinforcing steel to reach the second floor of a construction project. The judge vacated the impalement citation because the employees were installing perimeter guards rather than performing concrete work and because he did not…
Dick Corporation
Rebar and fuel-safety violations affirmed
A rod-buster and foreman worked about 22 feet above a cement floor with protruding reinforcing steel, without safety belts or impalement protection. The Commission held that positioning and securing a rebar column against a wooden form was still placing and tying reinforcing steel under the cited…
Granite-Groves, A Joint Venture
Excavation walkway and impalement violations affirmed
Granite-Groves was constructing a metro tunnel in a District of Columbia excavation that was 50 to 60 feet deep. Employees regularly crossed unguarded steel wales and struts about 50 feet above the bottom without safety belts, and vertically protruding reinforcing steel was below their work area…
United Engineers & Constructors, Inc.
Repeat rebar violation affirmed and two items vacated
At the Three Mile Island construction site, one employee stood untied on a crane girder about 225 feet above the floor while guiding another crane. Safety nets would have blocked the lift, and the Commission divided over whether a feasible safety-belt anchorage had been proved, leaving the…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.